The Minnesota State Fair exhibit was closed for the day and an employee was counting its daily earnings when a man walked up to him and pointed a gun at his head.

After demanding the cash, Antonio Washington bound the employee and a co-worker to chairs with duct tape, filled bags with more than $100,000 and took off, according to a criminal complaint filed against him Friday in U.S. District Court.

Washington, 20, of St. Paul faces one federal count of unlawfully affecting interstate commerce or attempting to do so by means of robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

He made his first appearance on the charges Friday afternoon. Standing in a red sweatshirt and khaki pants, Washington asked U.S. Magistrate Jeffrey Keyes to appoint him a public defender during the short proceeding.

Keyes scheduled a preliminary and detention hearing for Tuesday.

Several of Washington’s family and friends were in attendance.

He made emotional declarations to many of them before marshals led him out of the courtroom.

“I love all y’all,” Washington said. “Thank you for being here.”

Another man allegedly aided Washington throughout the armed robbery, acted as lookout and helped restrain the victims, then also fled with the money, according to an affidavit by FBI Agent Julia Hunter that accompanied the charges. Charges have not yet been filed against him.

The robbery took place about 11 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild exhibit in the State Fair’s Agriculture-Horticulture Building.

The exhibit comprises a group of individual brewers who promote and sell their products at the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

It’s run by Mintahoe Catering and Events, and employees from that vendor were held up during the incident, the charges say.

In addition to the theft from the brewers, a nearby wine exhibit known as Wine Country was robbed. Mintahoe also reportedly operates that exhibit.

About $104,000 was stolen from the two locations, the charges say.

Investigators caught up with Washington on Sept. 4, when law enforcement stopped him while he was driving alone in Faribault. He allegedly had a .22-caliber revolver with him in the vehicle.

The gun matches the description of the weapon used in the robbery, Hunter stated.

Washington had reportedly gone to a St. Paul car dealership Aug. 30 and bought two vehicles for about $6,000.

In a post-Miranda statement taken Wednesday, Washington allegedly confessed to the armed robbery.

He said he used some proceeds to buy jewelry and clothes at the Mall of America, Hunter stated.

“The Great Minnesota Get-Together is a local institution,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said. “The State Fair should be about family fun, with corn-on-the-cob, cows and carnival rides. As charged, this defendant disrupted our collective nostalgia by bringing violence to this summer ritual.”

Washington was charged with a federal crime because the commerce activities connected to the exhibits cross state lines. Thousands of visitors were from out of state and many ingredients used to make the beer came from outside Minnesota, the charges say.

His criminal record includes a citation for underage drinking in 2012.

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